


birds do it, bees do it

by wetblanketpioneer



Category: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (TV)
Genre: BailBuddies, F/M, Post-Season/Series 03, hotel shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:35:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22167238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wetblanketpioneer/pseuds/wetblanketpioneer
Summary: After losing her gig with Shy, Midge knows she can’t go home. Lucky for her, she has some spare change and a decidedly non-boyfriend in Florida.
Relationships: Lenny Bruce (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)/Miriam "Midge" Maisel
Comments: 10
Kudos: 157





	birds do it, bees do it

**Author's Note:**

> Sending my love to @Kaarin! Thanks for being the Archie to my hopefully-less-problematic Joel!

Midge didn’t know where to go. The moment she left the airfield with Susie she just knew she had to get away. She had no money and no plans, but she already made  _ such _ a hubbub of saying goodbye to her friends and family that she couldn’t just go back home like nothing had happened. 

She sold all of her hats and unwanted outfits to a downtown modeling agency and used the money for a train ticket out of Penn Station. Maybe she could go back to Vegas and work the hotel circuit again. She would get her feet back on the ground like some rags-to-riches film. Of course, Chanel couture was far from rags, but a single suitcase was surely limiting. She could go back to the Fontainebleau in Miami and perform at the clubs in town. Midge could even go back on Miami After Dark, this time without Lenny. 

Lenny. She missed him. Midge  _ always _ missed him. 

Before she knew it, she was getting out of her cab in Miami at two A.M. and knocking on his motel door. 

“Hi.” 

“You came back,” Lenny said, beaming at her as he ushered her into his surprisingly spacious room. His eyes crinkled in surprise and Midge could feel the butterflies in her stomach spring back to life after weeks of dormancy. 

“I did.” She started to pick up her case before Lenny, without missing a beat, swooped in to carry it inside. The radio was on, playing some jazz. Miles Davis. She had heard him live in a club a while back. 

“How long are you in town?” He asked while setting the suitcase down near the dresser. 

Lenny didn’t ask what she was doing in town or where she was staying. Maybe the sole suitcase explained it all, but Midge was grateful nonetheless. “No questions asked” was a good policy to keep in moments like these, even if it really meant “no questions asked  _ immediately _ .” 

She took off her gloves and jacket and tossed them on the armchair near a television set. “I’m not sure,” she replied. 

“Take however long you need.” He straightened up, putting his hands in the pockets of his uncrisp navy trousers. Lenny looked rumpled, like he had just come home from a long night out and smelled like espresso. “What’s mine is yours.”

She took a step closer to him, her heart pounding. Was that a genuine offer, or just a cheap joke? He’s too nice; he’s  _ always _ too nice, asking for nothing in return. He was always there with her in some capacity, whether over the phone, or hanging around in some bar like a fairy godmother, but not so much a “fairy godmother” as a reliable, easy-on-the-eyes non-boyfriend. He was most decidedly not her boyfriend, as determined by Midge. Maybe Lenny felt the same way, but they way he was looking at her told another story. Maybe her eyes were doing the same thing.

“You’re not my boyfriend,” Midge whispered as she wrapped her arms around him, like they were back to dancing in that club. 

“I know,” he whispered back, his voice almost husky. It had never sounded that way before. 

His hands were on her waist now. She could feel his warm breath on her neck as the sax solo wailed out a beautiful melody. 

“I don’t want to be.” 

“I don’t want you to be.” If she looked up, she would be his. Or maybe he would be hers. Sure, the atmosphere was less-than-ideal in comparison to the dance club for the last time they met, but she couldn’t be bothered with the details of the possibilities and circumstances, only with the fact that he was so fucking close. 

So Midge looked up. 

She closed her eyes the moment her lips met his, and she could feel him holding her even closer. She wanted him. She had missed Lenny for so long and now he was  _ here.  _ They were wrapped in each other like the ends of a ribbon tied into a bow. It was just meant to be.

After an eternity, he moved his head back to break the kiss. 

“You’re not my girlfriend,” he murmured as she rubbed little circles on the nape of his neck.

”We’ve established that,” she said, laughing softly. 

He pulled away and sat on the bed, lips curled into a sad smile. “Then what are we?”

Lenny’s question swirled around in Midge’s mind, filling her toe-top-full with dread. She really didn’t want to think of the gravity of their relationship enough to give it a name, because she didn’t need to give it a second thought before knowing that no label could suit. But, certainly, she  _ loved  _ him. With every fiber of her being, Midge loved Lenny, and not just in some soapy “I need you to be with me right now because nothing else will do” way. No, she didn’t just need him  _ right now _ . She wanted to be with Lenny all of the time, but she knew she could never be  _ with _ him. 

“I don’t know, Lenny. And I don’t know if I’ll ever know what we are because I don’t know if we are anything at all. All I know is that I love you.”

His leg stopped shaking. 

“I’m so fucking scared of messing this all up. I’ve fucked up most of my relationships and burned so many bridges and I can’t afford to do that to you. Lenny,” she said walking over to take his hands, “I love you and I don’t want to lose you.”

He didn’t reply immediately. Rather, he simply stood up, opened up the window near the dresser, and lit a cigarette. Midge sat on the bed and waited desperately for a response. 

Lenny flicked a bit of ash and peered out the window as it began to rain. “I loved you from the moment you bailed me out,” he mused quietly. “I never thought of losing you because I never thought you were mine.”

Midge didn’t know what to say. There was an air of defeat in his voice, even though he sounded almost breezy in his delivery. Couldn’t she just undo the last hour, and go back to knocking on his door? Or maybe she could go even further back to the train station and pick a different place to escape. 

He stepped over to the desk and put out the cigarette. “You should probably get some rest,” he suggested, leaning back and drumming his fingers on the tabletop. “You can take the bed.”

She met his gaze. “I slept all through the train ride,” she stated. She didn’t want to point out how neatly his bed was made and how crisp the pillow cases appeared to be, like they had never been slept on before. 

“Are you sure you’re not gonna sleep?” Lenny asked. 

Midge shook her head. “Are you?”

“I wasn’t sleeping before, so there’s no use starting now. Besides,” he continued as he plopped next to her on the bed, “there’s a John Wayne marathon on ABC.”

She shook her head as Ella Fitzgerald began to croon some Cole Porter over the radio. Midge kicked up her feet onto the bed and backed up against the headboard. “Let’s just listen,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder. Her heart rate had slowed to something deadly. She was so at ease that it scared her. 

“You like Porter?” Lenny asked. Midge could imagine the quirk of his brow. Maybe it amused him  _ just  _ how Upper West Side she could get.

“Of course,” she replied. Lenny laced his fingers through hers as they rested on her lap. 

They didn’t discuss why Midge had shown up on Lenny’s doorstep in the middle of the night. They didn’t talk further about what to do next and where to go from there. Midge didn’t want to think about the future, she just wanted to work her way through the now, with Lenny by her side. 

Ella had reached her refrain, fitting the reluctant couple to a tee:

_ “Let's do it, let's fall in love…” _

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! If you did, please let me know with some kudos or a comment. It would be greatly appreciated :)  
> Have a lovely day! Thank you, and good night!!


End file.
